Heroes: Don't Look Back

(S01E02) Tonight's episode adds to the puzzle and that's just fine by me. It's still early and, as packed with characters and plot threads as the opener was, this episode seems like the second half of a two hour premiere. We're just getting started, still meeting new characters for the first time, and only Flying Boy has yet to cross paths with any of the other heroes.

We get our first intimations of a named super villain tonight: Sylar. He (it?) likes to collect, or eat, superhero brains. Sylar is Mohinder's father's "patient zero" which I guess means he's either the link to all the heroes, or the first one with powers, or maybe the cause of everything, or, who knows.

Evidently, Mohinder has a hard time entering an apartment without finding a government agent creeping about. This is the second week in a row. But this time at least he meets a super-cutie neighbor -- who luckily handles a gun pretty well for a antique bookstore clerk. But Mohinder needs to have someone to deliver his exposition to, so she comes in quite handy in that way too.Flying Boy, Peter, and his brother the Flying Congressman both possess the super power, as some commentators guessed last week. Their Mom also possesses a secret power -- she has the ability to do excellent job of channeling Jessica Walters' character Lucille from Arrested Development. Could her delivery of the revelation that Peter's father had killed himself been any dryer?

I enjoyed Greg Grunberg (the great character actor who played Agent Weiss on Alias) as under-achieving cop Matt Parkman -- even though, with Psychic Artist's paintings and Peter's somewhat prescient dreams, I think the show's in danger of clairvoyant overpopulation.

Niki (Looking Glass Girl) is trapped in a horror film. I like the way the series jumps back and forth between gruesomeness, comedy, and family drama. Well, I could do with a little less family drama. If Peter dials back on the angst, that would be fine by me.

The character this week who is still my favorite is Hiro. Sure he avoids the murder wrap and has now has five weeks to avert the apocalypse, but first he finds himself back on the crowded train back on the way to his miserable cubicle farm job. It's tough to be a hero, but he's doing his best to embrace it and make it work. And apparently he hasn't got any better handle on his powers that do the others, yet. Except Clair, she seems to have the whole reset your twisted spinal cord thing down pretty well.

Now at the end of episode two, I still think the show is as promising as I did after the pilot. I'll be interested to hear what you all thought of it ...

For much of the episode just as there were some questions answered from last week, new questions popped in to entice the viewer. Let's start off with a pretty slowly with the two brothers Nathan and Peter talk about the incident with Peter taking a flying leap of the building. I cringed with Nathan stating that there was no flying by either one and to make matters worse, their mother comes in and tells Peter about their father's suicide and how it this may be affecting Peter. There is a nice resolution in the end where Peter forces Nathan's hand to confess that they did fly and it was not an attempted suicide. Peter demonstrating without much thought was hovering in mid flight and once this was pointed out broke his concentration and dropped to the ground. I'm interested in where this will go.

Next Niki is racing to pick up her son but wants to watch the videotape of the two thugs being killed. What's weird about this scene is that see nothing except for the screams of the guys being tortured by the supposed Niki's alter ego and then WHAMO two seconds later, she in a different area, with a different top and it's some four hours later. I don't believe she is some type of She-Hulk or warns her trespassers, "You won't like me when I'm angry," but what is exactly happening to her since this thing is cleaning up the mess of the killings and instructing Niki where to bury the bodies. Did this all happen during Niki's blackout period? What the hell was that thing in the sand she hit with the shovel?

Moving along, Hiro is pleased as punch to be in NY only to find out that he is in a comic book called 9th Wonder where everything he had just experienced including the same dialogue with this co-worker was identical in the comic. As he goes to the end to see the artist's name, we see it the tortured painter Isaac who is both a comic book writer and artist. From an earlier scene, we see the Isaac is alive with Simone but when Hiro goes to the studio, picks up a gun, blood on the floor and then a body with the skull sawed off. I'm not sure if this is Isaac but the police break in and arrest Hiro. What gets more interesting with the situation, Hiro said that he teleported to NY and called his co-worker friend from work. The friend had said that Hiro had been missing for five weeks. Somehow Hiro not only teleported to NY but jumped ahead by 1 month. When this revealed to be true with a copy of newspaper, not only did Nathan when the election but a bomb went off in NY. Hiro was able to get back to where he started on the train. So, who the hell is going to believe him that he teleport and that he saw the destruction on NY? Two, was that really Isaac dead in the studio? Which leads me to Sylar.

Since we know of Sylar being hinted as a bad guy in the first show, this episode has shown a very dark side to this villain even though we never see him in action. There was the taped conversation that Sylar had with Mohinder's father. We hear Sylar talk about cravings and things Mohinder's father is responsible for in creating this monster. The evidence is seen in the later part of the episode which Matt Parkman, the police officer, joins the cast of Heroes and is at the crime scene of Sylar's doing. Once again we see a sawed of male skull and a woman stabbed multiple times and pinned to a staircase railing. Matt's powers are revealed that he can hear people's thought. In the course of this scene, he is the hero since he saved the little girl who was in hiding but then gets in trouble in revealing Sylar's name since only 6 people involved in the case know about ongoing murders of Sylar. In future episode, Matt is somehow captured by Sylar but to what extend, I don't know.

Continuing with Sylar we now know is the adoptive father of the cheerleader, Claire. Adding more to the creep factor to Sylar, somehow he or someone else stole the videotape of Claire trying to kill herself over and over again. Is Sylar surprised to learn of Claire's ability or is he planning to control her for his own use?

The last point of observation has to do with Mohinder. While he was able to fend off the faux exterminator guy, why was he kept alive? The exterminator had the gun and could have easily killed him but opted to leave the apartment. Outside the apartment, the exterminator guy runs into a next door neighbor which gives Mohinder the chance to get the guy. As the two struggled, the neighbor picks up the gun and holds the exterminator guy at bay. Unfortunately, the exterminator escapes

There is something wrong with this series. This episode was as uninteresting as the first one.

- AlterEgoKillingBitch: Still the best thing by far.... really far.- Birdie Brothers: What a boring relationship. Who would care for two brothers that respect each other and have a great relationship? I don't. One of them must become a villain or their relationship will be occupying more precious TV time for nothing.- Crack-head Painter: Almost clicks, really close. I need some more integration with the rest (I'm really inpatient)- Unbreakable Cheerleader: Another one that is working well. Her relationship with her father is too easy though.- Cop: Couldn't care less. Maybe it's my Medium/Allison Duboir overdose but he just seems very very uninteresting. And what's with the last scene from ep2? Am I the only one that thought the ugly investigator overreacted?- Idiot Teleporter: If he was not such an idiot he could be the best element of the whole series. They just threw this one away, what a shame.- Mohinder: Only exists to work as a path for the main mystery, that's all he is, nothing more. Another wasted character.- Sylar: Super brains hunger!!! Anyone? Anyone? Jesus Christ. Where is the class? I would give my right pinkie toe to see Frank Miller writing for this series.

I'll give it a few more episodes and if it doesn't grab me by the balls I'll do what this episode's title says, I'll walk away and will not look back.

I loved both episodes! Of course the plots are a little slow! Who wants a big reveal in the first 3 weeks? Although the ending of the 2nd episode with the nuclear blast blew me away! What a great scene! I'll keep watching no matter what, and hope they change the time for 24 when it starts in January, or else it's getting TIVOED!

I still think this show is promising,with Hiro and the cop being my favorites. It gets a bit campy when the cheerleader's father does his "Snively Whiplash" impersonation of a villain, however. If they keep this show moving along, I'll gladly label myself a fangranny.

I loved the show. It always leaves me just wanting to go on to the next episode.

I could do without the indian guy's voiceovers, and basically without his charcter at all. he annoys the hell out of me, and what is he contributing? He has no superpowers, he has no interesting storyline. He is destined for a shocking death, and nothing more.

The symbol appears to me to be a DNA segment.You can make out the Helix structure if you try.Possibly the DNA section having to do with the mutation.I have been anticipating this show since I first saw a rough cut of the pilot,and so far I haven't been disappointed and I agree with the Hiro fans-by far the best character on the show,although I do like the unbreakable cheerleader.It would be nice to have a Hero from my home state of Texas.

I was underwhelmed by the pilot, but kept it in my DVR series recordings to give it another shot. I'm really glad I did! The second episode was vastly superior to the first--although I got a little squicked by Nikki's decision to bury dead bodies in the desert while her son sleeps in the car. I also thought the red convertible was a little...conspicuous for a getaway vehicle. But these are quibbles. The writing and editing was much, much tighter this week, and the wonderful Hiro (SUCH a great character) seeing the comic in Isaac's studio which showed him, basically, seeing the comic in Isaac's studio was an amazing Twilight-Zoney touch.

what was that symbol that kept appearing? it was in a bunch of the paintings in the loft, and it even showed up in the pool(as part of the tubing of the vaccum system) where the cop found the girl. did i miss something in the first episode?